Removing old OS from hdd

[defynphysics]

Hey guys!!

how we doing?

A friend has brought a new PC with pre-installed OS (not sure if windows 8 or 7)

and she wants to use her the hdd from her old PC which has windows XP on it which will need to be reformatted so she can use it for storage but needs some things off of it before its wiped

how would i go by doing this?

thanks in advance

P.S The old pc wont turn on and wasnt worth fixing

 

[bliq]

assuming the old hdd is SATA, and not IDE, just plug the old HDD into the new computer and boot up- it should show up as another drive letter. If it tries to boot XP, then you need to either change the boot order in the BIOS or if given the option, during POST, select "Boot Device" and select the newer hard drive.

If the old drive is IDE, and the new computer doesn't have IDE ports on the motherboard (very likely), then you'll need to find a IDE to SATA adapter.

 

[groundrat]

Easy one.

Go into Bios and designate the CD/Rom as the first boot device.
Install the HDD with XP and disconnect any other drive.
Put the new windows disk into the CD/ Rom.
Turn on the computer.
When Startup asks, reformat the old drive, delete any partitions and then reinstall them, if desired.
Install windows on the newly reformatted hard drive.

(I hate simultaneous posts! makes us both look silly)

 

[Ironsounds]

hello... you can just plug in the OLD hardrive into the New PC... right click COMPUTER... MANAGE... Storage... DISK MANAGEMENT... right Click the OLD drive info... MARK Partition as ACTIVE...

Get your data off of it...

Then you can wipe the drive clean if ya want... Format it?

 

[defynphysics]

assuming the old hdd is SATA, and not IDE, just plug the old HDD into the new computer and boot up- it should show up as another drive letter. If it tries to boot XP, then you need to either change the boot order in the BIOS or if given the option, during POST, select "Boot Device" and select the newer hard drive.

If the old drive is IDE, and the new computer doesn't have IDE ports on the motherboard (very likely), then you'll need to find a IDE to SATA adapter.

The old hdd is a sata so if i just connect it up and boot off the new hard drive then load windows will i be able to click and drag the files i need to the new hdd then format the old one once i have done the transfers?

 

[bliq]

The old hdd is a sata so if i just connect it up and boot off the new hard drive then load windows will i be able to click and drag the files i need to the new hdd then format the old one once i have done the transfers?

Don't need to install windows. You should have access to the old drive's contents once you boot up with the OS from the new computer/hdd. your new drive will be drive c: and the old one might be drive d:

You can navigate it as if it didn't have an OS installed.

 

[defynphysics]

Best answer selected by defynphysics.

 

[defynphysics]

Don't need to install windows. You should have access to the old drive's contents once you boot up with the OS from the new computer/hdd. your new drive will be drive c: and the old one might be drive d:

You can navigate it as if it didn't have an OS installed.

thank you very much kind sir